HOW TO SET UP A BULLET JOURNAL WHEN YOU’RE NOT CREATIVE

Anyone who at least once tried searching some journaling ideas most definitely stumbled upon a Bullet Journal. Bullet Journal (or BuJo, as people refer to it) is basically a handmade planner. But it’s so much more than that! The whole BuJo system was designed by Ryder Caroll a few years back. You can read his story on the official BuJo page.

So, if you already wanted to start your own BuJo but was intimidated by all the wonderful spreads found online, don’t worry, I got your back. I know, when you google Bullet Journal you can find a million images of perfect journal pages. There are so many people who are so amazingly talented that they manage to make an art piece out of every page of their journal.

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I know how seeing all that makes you feel because I’ve been there. I delayed starting my own because I simply didn’t know how to make it work for me – a very non-creative me. So I started with the basics.

The first problem I had was that I couldn’t afford the official Leuchtturm 1917 notebook and dotted notebooks are very scarce in my country (dotted paper is the best for a BuJo). Luckily, I found a cheaper option in Germany. The Red Thread Edubook was a great option, it only lacked numbered pages, but I wrote them myself so it wasn’t a deal breaker.

So, my notebook arrived, I decided which pen to use and I started searching for ideas. But the more I looked the more lost I felt. So I decided to start looking and do my own thing. Everything was basic.

I started in September so I made a future log for those four months until the end of the year. The plan was to add some birthdays and events but I forgot 🙂 With my to-do list for the rest of the year and the list of movies coming out that was my beginning.

Now I was ready for my first monthly log! Without any embellishments and a simple black pen, I made my monthly log, a to-do list for that month, my basic habit tracker and weekly logs. My weekly logs were pretty basic as well. I would add a short list of tasks at the beginning of each week and in the daily logs I added weather forecast, number of steps I took each day and my daily tasks. And that was it.

I tried experimenting with different collections but I simply couldn’t find myself in them. Since I started the only collections I regularly use are “online orders” where I keep track of, well… my online orders, my “books” collection where I keep track of the books I’ve read, “mental notes” page where I write down everything I want to remember or examine later on. I also have a collection for things I wish to buy and one for the shows I’m watching.

Everything I did was very basic. When I finished my Red Thread Edubook I switched to a basic blank notebook I bought in my Lidl market. Since it has blank pages it was a bit challenging drawing my daily logs but with time I got the hang of it.

More than a year after I started keeping a Bullet Journal I started adding color. It still was very basic, just a touch of colored markers in my weekly logs. I didn’t even have a monthly spread (you know that beautiful artistic page every “real” BuJo enthusiast has at the start of each month). February this year was the first month since I started that I made a monthly spread page. I did one also for March, you can see it here in all its glory 🙂

As you can see by my pictures, Bullet Journal doesn’t have to be beautifully decorated to work. It really helped me organize my life since I’m a serious procrastinator. It made me finish my tasks sooner because I didn’t want to reschedule it day after day. And it wouldn’t happen if I thought I couldn’t have it because I wasn’t “creative enough”. If you think that too – stop. Start with the basic and in time you can implement more color and more art.

How do you keep your Bullet Journal? Are you more on the basic side like me or more artistic?